Makers of Dr Pepper, 7up Revamp `Pop Art' Recipes

Makers of Dr Pepper, 7up Revamp `Pop Art' Recipes

Article excerpt

SOMETHING ALMOST mystical and negligibly naughty washes over
otherwise calm, collected cooks when they pour a can of soda into a
recipe.

It doesn't belong there, and the mere inclusion seems a bit
illicit and risque.

But when culinary art tuns into pop art, these masters of the
kitchen exhibit an effervescent pride and a willingness to boast of
their secret ingredient: the humble soft drink.

That giddiness - along with plain good taste - has fueled the
popularity of a cookbook produced last year by the Dr Pepper/7Up
Cos. Inc. in Dallas.

The 88-page spiral-bound collection of Dr Pepper and 7Up
recipes, created last summer for new shareholders, has been offered
free to the public since fall.

"We've mailed out more than 10,000 cookbooks since August,"
said Tom Bayer, a spokesman. "It was such a hit with our
stockholders that we wanted to offer it to the public."

Coca-Cola cake and classic 7Up pound cake have been recipe box
staples for years, and Dr Pepper had files of published recipes
going back to the '40s. The company updated and expanded the
offerings, lightening the ingredients for the calorie- and
cholesterol-conscious '90s.

The Dr Pepper or 7Up "needed to make a contribution to the
recipe," Bayer said. "It had to bring its own flavor-texture
component to the dish."

The company asked Marilyn Ingram, a home economist, improve on
some of the older recipes.

"We were fairly picky with the recipes we put in," Ingram
said. "We made sure they were good recipes and not just a recipe
somebody had tossed 7Up in to be creative."

For example, she said, "the classic 7Up pound cake was just as
outstanding as everybody had said it was."

Ingram found that just about anytime she used 7Up in a batter,
she had good results, especially for fried fish and onion rings.
"It seems to really make the batter light and fluffy and crunchy,"
she explained.

She developed recipes for certain categories that were shy on
offerings, such as vegetables, to go with an abundance of recipes
for desserts and beverages.

"There are a lot of things, like the biscuits and pancake
batters, that seem to be better when you add a carbonated
beverage," she said. "And 7Up was easy to work with because it's
clear."

For the best results with soda pop cuisine, Ingram makes these
suggests you avoid artificially sweetened sodas in any recipe that
requires baking, because the aspartame will break down chemically
in the hot oven.